Solihull bespoke support: data driven reach and engagement

Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council undertook a mini early years peer challenge early in 2024. 

Following the challenge the LGA’s Children’s Improvement Team provided Solihull with six days bespoke support to implement some of the key recommendations; one of which was to further develop confident parenting and parent lead support in Solihull, coordinated through their new and developing family hubs.

The mini challenge included conversations with families, staff, commissioners and managers and a key theme which came out was about engaging and supporting parents. There was a general consensus that many families search online as a first port of call for parenting advice and support, and that this did not always have a positive impact. 

Parents stated:

Google searches make me feel like I am doing something wrong or should be doing something I’m not."

You can look for information online but have to remember that Google will tell you are dying if you simply have a headache." 

It was also noted that since lockdown and the ever-growing presence of social media there was no longer the norm of parents getting out to baby groups, stay and play sessions and the like.

Parent confidence in joining new groups, trying new activities, in particular with the new baby was reported as a challenge.

Anxiety amongst parents was reported as high, with both of the above factors contributing negatively to that picture.

A workshop was facilitated for the Family Hub leadership team and key stakeholders locally. The session was linked back to the legal requirements under the Childcare Act of creating a seamless pathway of services for families pre-birth to five in particular.

The session explored the commissioning cycle, and how the services utilise data to identify need, understand resource, and make decisions around whether or not to directly deliver a service, or in fact develop it. An understanding of the need to take a data driven approach and identifying groups of families with whom we want to engage with shared, and strategies to get proactive in reaching those key groups where they are.

During the session examples of reach and engagement strategies were shared and facilitated action planning working through the following questions:

Links were also shared to support a reach and engagement strategy.

• Access and inclusion
• City of York Council: establishing a community network of support and thinking creatively
• Family Hubs Network

A plan was developed to move from a reactive approach, which looked at attendance at the Hubs and those who are not attending, to considering a proactive approach using data across the whole area to understand who our target groups are in line with narrowing the gap (Childcare Act). 

The work included the following actions:

• share the hub awareness through work with settings, such as during the Early Education Funding evening
• think more about the data sets and how we coordinate what we have
• add a link to sign up for the Family Hub app in emails related to two-year-old funding and Free School Meals applications
• include a link to the Family Hubs webpages in email signatures
• link with local schools and/or Family Support Workers to enhance collaboration
• develop a better understanding of demographic data sets
• strengthen links with partner agencies to reach more families
• gather more feedback from families accessing the hubs, including English as an Additional Language resources
• organise sessions linked to events for families (for example, first day of school, birthday events, Christmas activities)
• continue to find effective ways to distribute information to local families
• Enhance knowledge of harder-to-reach groups in the local community
• implement joined-up notifications via the app to raise awareness of entitlements, school applications, free school meals, two year old funding, for example
• focus on strategies to engage hard-to-reach families, particularly in the context of neurodiversity and attendance issues and address concerns around infant mortality and how to re-engage affected families
• meet to consider the next session and best use of time to support a data driven approach and impact.

The Family Hub Management and stakeholder group was supported at a follow-up workshop to check progress, update on implementation and hold the group to account. This work will now be continued by the Family Hub lead.

There is a huge amount of data being gathered in Solihull already, but like most areas it is not often being used proactively to identify key groups to reach, and to shape models of delivery. The support provided a refocus moving the authority to a model which is proactively using data to reach and engage families in universal activities and ways to suit them.

This session led to a further facilitated conversation with a number of other local authorities to share how they are collecting and using data to inform Family Hub delivery and continuous improvement. This approach was invaluable in sharing experience, challenges and solutions across the range of different areas.

Louise Hudson 
Email: [email protected] 

Elizabeth Hodgman LGA Programme Manager 
Email: [email protected]